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CHAPTER TWO
EXPLORATION OF THE SITUATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO,
(DRC)
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culture. Disabilities have been interpreted as a divine punishment for sins committed by earlier generations. They also have sometimes been understood as the consequence of demonic activity. A northern European superstition held that human infants might be stolen from their cribs by evil spirits, and replaced with
“changelings”. Some parents concluded that children with disabilities must have been the result of such a substitution…In Western societies persons with disabilities were seen as “rightly poor”, which meant that they themselves were not responsible for their poverty, as opposed to the wrongly poor. This view was based on an understanding that disability is something that falls short of fully human life…it did mean that their conditions of life were interpreted as tragic as and less fulfilling than others.87
Samuel Kabue, an African disability scholar, argues in the same vein, from an African perspective:
For a long time and as is still the case in many parts of the world, disability…[has been] something that people are ashamed of. It is seen as a condition that should be kept out of sight, something that many people do not want to hear of. Disabilities are stigmatized in different respects…”88
In Africa, disability is regarded as a tragedy requiring sympathy and charity, but also sometimes condemnation. Cultural beliefs portray disability as a curse, as bad luck brought by the devil as a consequence of sin. In some countries, a woman who delivers a baby with cerebral palsy will be judged to have committed an offence toward an ancestor, toward God, or to have been unfaithful to her husband.89
Research of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates facts about the situation faced by people with disabilities in Africa which causes them to experience oppression. These include the following:
87 Arne Fritzson and Samuel Kabue, Interpreting Disability: A Church of All and for All. WCC Publication, Geneva 2004, 7-8.
88 Samuel Kabue, “People with Disabilities and Theological Education: Disability Discourse, Theological Education and the Journey of EDAN”, Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity, eds. D Werner, N Kang, R Raja (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2010), 230-241.
89 Statement made by BongiZuma, during the workshop on “Disability and Theology” at African Enterprise on 10th August 2010.
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1. According to the WHO, there are 650 million disabled persons worldwide and 80% live in developing countries. Only a small percentage of these people have access to basic healthcare and basic schooling.90
2. 90% of all children with disabilities do not attend school.91
3. People with disabilities are more likely to contract HIV and AIDS as they have no access to information and treatment.92
4. People with disabilities are vulnerable to abuse (during the war/genocide in DRC, Burundi and Rwanda, women with disabilities were the target of rape).93
Unfortunately, most churches are complicit in this oppression. Thus, “the World Council of Churches (WCC) [and] the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) …contend that most of their member churches have yet to fully integrate persons with disabilities into their church and community life. Many churches have socio-economic development programmes, such as schools and medical facilities; though very few churches have specific programmes for people with disabilities”.94 It is also noted by most of the scholars that “…Churches have participated in discriminating against people with disabilities and not fully integrated them into the mainstream of the church and society at large”.95
This oppression has negatively portrayed the image of people with disabilities, and disability has been perceived as a misfortune and has strongly influenced the mind-set of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the DRC as a Christian country, people have much faith in the Bible. However, certain cultural beliefs seemed to be difficult to separate from the biblical positions. For example, having an accident, disease, disability or dying is seen as a consequence of sin or of the sin of parents (John 9); indicating a mistaken understanding of
90 Sue Philpot, “La Pertinence et les defis”, 3-9; All.Africa.com“ Tanzania Crafts Business Disproves Myths and Disability” <http://allafrica.com/stories/200903240806.html> [02/02/2011]
91All. Africa.com, ‘Crafts Business Disproves Myths’, 2009.
92 Bruce Patricia F, “’A Daughter of Abraham’: Luke 13, 10 – 17 and the Inclusion of People with Disabilities’, Journal of Constructive Theology, vol. 11, No 1 (2005): 3 – 27; Micheline Kamba, “Women with Disabilities living with HIV and Aids in Eastern DRC, Bukavu: A Re-reading of Luke 13, 10-17” (unpublished paper 2007).
93 Micheline Kamba, ’Women with Disabilities in Violent Situations: In seeking Peace and Reconciliation (Africa/DRC’s case)’ a workshop paper presented at the Ecumenical International Peace Convocation (Kingston/Jamaica, May 2011): 3.
94 World Council of Churches, ’Humanity and Wholeness of Persons with Disabilities: Biblical and Theological Perspective on Disability’, Disability Quarterly Vol. 29, No 4 (2009), 22-30.
95 Samuel Kabue, ‘Persons with Handicaps in Church and Society’, Address to Church Leaders at Limuru Conference and Training Centre (NCCK, Nairobi: 26th March 1993).
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the biblical perspective of suffering. In other words, there are trajectories in the Bible that lend themselves to such use. Similarly, in African thinking, as I have stated above, disease or disability are considered as being associated with “disobedience to the ancestors” or “bad luck sent by the devil”.96
The socio-cultural concept of disability in the DRC has influenced the biblical interpretation of disability in the sense that people with disabilities are seen as “lesser human beings”. Thus, terms such as “koka” and “muela” that I mentioned above, have come into being which label people with disabilities.
This chapter will explore, firstly, the situation of people with disabilities in the DRC with some emphasis on Kinshasa and with special mention of violence committed against women with disabilities in Eastern DRC and other parts of the country. Secondly, I will focus on socio-cultural and spiritual aspects of disability and their effects on PWDs themselves, their families and environment. Thirdly, the issue of accessibility to “education for all” as a human right will be discussed and finally, this chapter will look at the relationship between PWDs and the Church. To this end, I will challenge the biblical interpretation of disability from the perspective of PWDs.
The aim of this chapter is to raise several facts that will make clear how necessary it is to re- read the Bible in a constructive manner and from the perspective of disability in order to develop a holistic educational programme for people with disabilities in the DRC.